Thai Yellow Curry with Beef and Potatoes

Like most recipes in my life, this one starts and ends with the sauce. That velvety rich, fragrant, warming Thai yellow curry sauce with hints of coconut sweetness, flecks of green cilantro, delicate little strings of fresh ginger, punchy turmeric-yellow color, and a decent kick of Thai chile heat. It’s just barely thick enough to be like a creamy curry gravy but still saucy enough to make its way in and around every grain of rice. Perrrrfection.

I would just like to point out that somehow, when I was distracted by the Thai yellow curry sauce, chunks of beef (as in b-e-e-f, like red meat, like the stuff I never hardly ever cook or eat) snuck into my food dreams. What in the what?

Superweird, but no time to question it. MORE CURRY NOW // MORE CURRY NOW // MORE CURRY NOW.

I’ll just start by saying I don’t normally cook recipes that involve a special trip to a special grocery store or require more than 20 minutes of prep. You know that about me.

But I made this recipe for a special occasion last week: my newly started dinner club with friends! And here’s the thing about this Thai yellow curry recipe: it’s 100% from scratch.

Meaning:

you will literally make the curry paste from scratch. like, pulse it all together in your very own food processor or blender.

many readers will now leave this blog.

those of you who don’t will now check off the box for “make curry from scratch” from your foodie bucket list. *cheers and applause*

even if it doesn’t turn out like you were expecting, making a curry from scratch makes you feel like THE MOST AWESOME cook. because you are.

you will be giving yourself the gift of homemade yellow curry paste for at least two more recipes, because as written, you will end up with extra curry paste for later. this might actually be my favorite thing about the recipe.

you might have guessed, and you’d be right – this recipe requires a trip to an Asian grocery store. unless you’re the person whose mainstream grocery store sells shrimp paste and galangal, in which case you are a very lucky duck.

you don’t need to be a really fancy cook to make this – it’s really straightforward and at times it’s even hands-off. you will just need TIME. like, a few hours. save it for a Saturday or divide up each of the steps over a day or two.

And now, a close up shot of the curry paste because I’m a food blogger.

I actually made and photographed another whole recipe during the time that my beef was just simmering away and getting all wonderful in that buttery coconut milk.

And all the multi-taskers rejoiced!

You guys, I can’t even tell you how much fun I had making this for my friends, but really, just making it for me.

Most of my life revolves around food that is quick and easy and I’m always always always looking for shortcuts or ways to save time. So to have a time where I said – hey, look, I’m going to dedicate five hundred days to this just because I love cooking new things and because this is a life experience and because curry somehow runs in my Minnesota veins – was unusually therapeutic for me.

Truthfully? I don’t expect most readers to ever make this. It’s not practical. I totally get that and I almost felt like maybe I shouldn’t post the recipe because it’s such a beast.

BUT. If you love curry. If you love cooking. If you love watching something be created from nothing. And if you can find a few hours here and there over the course of a few days to get this all put together, you and I should probably talk.

Description

Thai Yellow Curry with Beef and Potatoes – made from scratch! Perfect creamy comfort food with huge flavor and a kick of spice.

Scale

Ingredients

For the yellow curry paste

2 shallots

1 head garlic

1 3-inch piece galangal, peeled and thinly sliced*

1 3-inch piece ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

1 teaspoon roasted ground coriander

20 dried red Thai chiles softened in hot water

2 tablespoons turmeric

2 tablespoons curry powder

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon shrimp paste*

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon lemongrass paste

For the curry

2 lbs. beef chuck, trimmed and cut into cubes

3–4 cups light coconut milk

4 cups water, divided

2 cups coconut cream (canned)*

24 ounces Yukon gold potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 shallot, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1/2 cup minced cilantro

Instructions

CURRY PASTE (one hour): Heat a cast-iron pan over medium high heat. Wrap the garlic and shallots in foil (with their paper on) and place on the skillet for 25 minutes, flipping once half way through. Remove from heat and cool, and roughly chop. Set aside. Layer the ginger and galangal in a single layer and wrap with foil. Place in the skillet and heat for about 10 minutes flipping once halfway through. Place garlic, shallots, ginger, galangal, and all other ingredients for the curry paste in a blender or food processor. Pulse until mostly smooth. Use water from the chiles to help the mixture run through the blender as needed. This will make a little more than 2 cups – set 3/4 cup aside for this recipe and freeze or refrigerate the rest for later.

BEEF (one hour): Heat the light coconut milk in a deep pot. Add the beef and simmer for 45 minutes. Add 1 cup water and simmer another 15-20 minutes. Set aside; do not drain.

CURRY (one hour): Heat the coconut cream in a deep pot until bubbling and starting to thicken a bit. Add about 3/4 cup curry paste and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the potatoes, shallots, beef, and 1/2 cup of the reserved coconut milk from step two. Stir in 3 cups water. Simmer for 30-45 minutes until potatoes are tender. Add the sugar, fish sauce, cilantro. Serve over jasmine rice.

Notes

*These ingredients will probably require a trip to an Asian grocery store. It’s worth it if you want to do it right! I would suggest buying 2-3x what you need in case you want to make it again.

As written, I would rate this as mild++.

As written, the recipe is exactly how I made it for my friends. But it felt a little greasy, so when I made it the second time I opted for coconut milk instead of coconut cream. The results were really good other than that it was very very very spicy. I would consider it medium+ if not straight up hot. So if you’re going to sub coconut milk for coconut cream, reduce the amount of curry paste to 1/2 cup or less (you can always add more later if you want).

Did you make this recipe?

PS. I’m anticipating questions about using store bought yellow curry paste, because I wondered the same thing myself. Honestly, I don’t remember the last time (if ever) that I’ve used store bought yellow curry paste so it’s really hard to me to say if that could be used in this recipe with similar results. I think it could? but I make no promises. Please leave a comment if you try it with the store bought paste so others know how to best adjust the recipe.

161 Comments

Jess

Hi
This recipe looks amazing! Has anyone tried freezing the finished product? I would be interested to know how the potatoes defrosted.
I’m currently looking for healthy, freezer friendly recipe ideas for a friend who has just has just had a baby.

PEOPLE!…this recipe is VERY difficult to mess up! Dump coconut milk, curry paste, diced chicken and potatoes in a big pot. Bring to a boil, turn down to simmer until potatoes are tender. Thin with a little water if desired. Just before serving stir in as much (or little) chopped cilantro and fish sauce (or salt) to taste.

Would it be alright if I omit the shrimp paste? I am still going to use the paste for your yellow curry recipes, but with the leftover paste I wanted to make a vegetarian yellow curry for a family member.

Best curry ever. Rave reviews from everyone I make this for; best of all curry recipes I’ve ever made and better than any restaurant too! I would suggest changing the order of the steps though, so that it takes less total time to prepare. If you get the beef boiling in the coconut milk right off the bat you still easily have enough time to make the paste before you need it. I couldn’t get the stars to light up 5 but I would give 6/5 if I could!!!!

Hi this sound great and i am excited to try it. The curry paste recipe calls for curry powder. Have you found one that you would recommend? There is usually a huge difference among the pre-made curry powders. Also, I just found your website and am so sorry to read about your sweet baby boy Afton. I am sure you have been bombarded with resources, but I want to share one more with you. It is a blog post centered around the idea : “some things in life cannot be fixed, they can only be carried.”. Again, my deepest condolences to you and your husband. http://www.timjlawrence.com/blog/2015/10/19/everything-doesnt-happen-for-a-reason

This is such a great site and I love the way you write. I usually use a yellow paste from the Vietnamese market near me (all no natural, no preservatives nothing) but one of these days I’m gonna make it from scratch. I’m really good at making Indian curries so I have high hopes for this. Incidentally, the store-bought paste doesn’t have shrimp paste and it still tastes great – as good as anything from a thai restaurant.

I just made this curry paste and my house smells amazing! Yellow curry cod for dinner tonight. I had to sub fresh chilis for dried (7). I will add another couple when cooking. Thank you for this fabulous recipe!

Hi Linsay Sorry I’ve just come acrosss your blog as I was looking up yellow curry and see its an old post but recipe looks great. Just a little confused (I’m from UK) 13 inches of ginger and galangal? thats a lot Im just Checking you don’t mean 1/3 of an inch. Thanks Michelle

I wrote you a few days ago and never heard back..I REALLY HOPE you can answer THIS question for me PLEASE….do I use the coconut milk used to cook the beef in..or do I discard and just add beef to curry mixture. Thank you.

Hi I have a question. So, do I throw away all but 1/2 cup of the coconut milk liquid from step 2? Step 3 says to add the beef and 1/2 cup of the reserved liquid from step 2. I hate to throw away the coconut milk from step 2. Am I misunderstanding something?

Hi! I just read your EASY yellow curry recipe, then followed the link to read this one. What if someone in my family has a shellfish allergy? Is there a sub for the shrimp paste? ALSO, because I know you LOVE food: Do you ever make this recipe any more, or do you stick with the easy recipe? Curious which you like best. 🙂

Excellent curry paste. Tine consuming but we’ll worth it, make LOTS and freeze it! I’ve given up on way-too-spicy store bought pastes, too hot for kids. This one is very flavourful but mild. Don’t worry about the shrimp paste as it’s flavour gets masked by all the other ingredients. Fish sauce I avoid, preferring to use it as a table sauce as many don’t care for it. Last random thought…better to roast the ginger, galangal, shallots and garlic in the oven as they tend to scorch a bit in the direct heat if a pan.